Jean Benguigui Movies

It's hard to say if the kids or the counselors need more supervision at the second-rate summer camp in this comedy from France. Vincent (Jean-Paul Rouve) runs "Ces Jours Heureux," a camp for kids in rural France, and as he gears up for the summer season, he has to round up a new staff of counselors to look after the campers. Vincent ends up with six eccentric twenty-somethings, including self-styled ladies' man Daniel (Lannick Gautry), Canadian party animal Truman (Guillaume Cyr), potty-mouthed lapsed Catholic Caroline (Josephine de Meaux), pretty but non-ambitious Lisa (Julie Fournier), handsome black guy Joseph (Omar Sy), and Nadine (Marilou Berry), who is made the camp medic by virtue of her status as a medical school drop-out. While the campers have to contend with bad weather, worse food and extended periods of boredom, the supposedly more mature counselors hardly fare much better, and occasionally face visits from the cops over the camp's various safety violations. Nos Jours Heureux (aka Those Happy Days) was written and directed by the team of Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache, who previously scored a box office hit with Je Prefere Qu'on Reste Amis. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Based on the original '60s French comic books by René Goscinny, Astérix & Obélix: Mission Cléopâtre is the big-budget sequel to the 1999 box-office hit Astérix and Obélix vs. Caesar. Empress Cleopatra (Monica Bellucci) makes a wager with Julius Caesar (played by writer/director Alain Chabat) that her people can build a beautiful palace in three months. She chooses architect Numerobis (Jamel Debbouze) for the project, which must be completed in time or he will be fed to the crocodiles. Numerobis travels to Gaul to get help from the superpowered Panoramix (Claude Rich) and the warriors Astérix (Christian Clavier) and Obélix (Gérard Depardieu), along with their faithful pet Dogmatix. They use their magic potion to make the Egyptian slave-labor population into superheroes, thereby building the palace in no time. Meanwhile, the angry architect Amonbofis (Gérard Darmon) and Julius Caesar don't want to see them succeed. At the time of its release, Astérix & Obélix: Mission Cléopâtre was the most expensive French film ever made, with a budget of $50 million. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Mathias Ledoux directs this atmospheric erotic thriller. Author Jean Dorset (Jean-Hugues Anglade) has suffered from a bad case of writer's block since his first novel became a bestseller. He lives in a small apartment in Paris with his wife Michelle (Clotilde Courau) and, in spite of their ostensible success, the couple are having trouble making ends meet. One day they receive the utterly unexpected news that they are the sole inheritors of a wealthy neighbor, M. Guillemet, whom they have never met. Guillemet has left them his old townhouse along with all of his belongings, but with two conditions -- the first is that the dead man's papers be left untouched, and the second is that his live-in maid Clemence Richbourg (Christine Boisson) remain employed at the estate. The Dorsets soon learn why they were the recipients of such strange generosity. Guillemet had set up a camera with a massive zoom lens pointing to their bedroom window. The couple is shocked and disgusted, but not enough to give up their new tony digs. Clemence proves to be a more unnerving presence. Her steely, impassive demeanor coupled with her penchant for wearing Mao jackets (and, it turns out, naughty underwear) gives her an air of menace. Soon the Dorsets speculate that Clemence poisoned her former employer's food in an ill-fated attempt at inheriting his property. Later, Jean decides to write his next novel on his curious benefactor. When he starts digging around the old man's files, he begins to suspect that his wife not only did know Guillemet, but frequented his place. This film was screened at the 2000 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

The 50th film from legendary French New Wave writer and director Claude Chabrol is a typically Hitchcockian comic thriller about a pair of con artists. Up to now, the duo of Betty (Isabelle Huppert) and Victor (Michel Serrault) have contented themselves to small scams at hotel conventions, such as spiking the drink of a gambler, then rolling him for his winnings after he follows the flirtatious Betty back to his room and passes out. It then develops that, for the past year, without telling Victor, Betty has been plotting an enormous score involving Maurice (François Cluzet), the treasurer of an international corporation, who's planning to abscond with a briefcase containing five million Swiss francs in syndicate money. Betty's plan is for Victor to swap an identical briefcase with Maurice's and walk away with the jackpot, but Victor becomes suspicious of Betty's solo venture. Is his once-loyal partner betraying him? What about Maurice, who's no fool, and his gangster bosses, who will surely want their money returned? A dizzying array of potential double-crosses muddles the question of who's grifting who in the Betty-Victor-Maurice triangle. Rien Ne Va Plus (1997) screened at several film festivals under the English-language title The Swindle. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Despite his lifelong efforts, Jean is one of those unfortunate men who can never understand women. This arty, metaphorical French film presents three examples of Jean's difficulties over the course of his long life. Each of the three episodes takes place beside the same river. He is first seen as a small boy playing on the river banks with the teenage girl he secretly loves. She mischievously promises to tell him her darkest secret if only he will perform a certain task for her. The story then takes a more surreal turn as a now-grown Jean, once again beside the river, toys with a beautiful woman at a picnic. She wants a commitment from him, but wily Jean is unwilling to satisfy her. In the final segment, Jean has become an old man and is once again deeply in love. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The war for control of a lucrative international drug trade provides the focus of this drama. The trouble begins when a kingpin is released after serving a ten year prison sentence and discovers that his relatives are engaging in a bloody battle for control. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Bertille (Giuletta Masina) has a lovely home in the French countryside -- and plenty of grab-happy children and relatives who want a piece of the inheritance they expect from her. That's why, even though she's not their favorite relative (nor they hers) they all appear at one final reunion on the estate before she sells it. However, truth will out, and in little ways and large ones, the disagreeable relatives show cracks in their "let's make nice" facade. Meanwhile, Bertille is hoping that her youngest son might appear, since the event was advertised in the local papers. He has been in prison for the past dozen or so years on a bank-robbery charge. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Walter (Michel Blanc), the leader of a nudist colony, enlists the help of left-wing militant Henriette (Jacqueline Maillan) in this political satire. He feels he has been snubbed by the government when he mistakenly believes he should receive the Legion of Honor. The release of the film coincided with the elections in France, but none of the political issues of the time were reflected in the subject matter. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Fifteen strangers who have volunteered for an experiment in isolation are forced to deal with an even larger problem in this film from Italian director Giuliano Montaldo. A research group in Germany wants to study the effects of isolation in a nuclear shelter on human subjects and assembles a diverse group of people for the test. The strangers agree to stay in the shelter for 20 days, but are allowed to exit at any time. During their time in the shelter, the group experiences a wide range of social dynamics, but near the end of their stay in the shelter, it is learned that a real nuclear incident is underway and the test group will be forced to stay in their shelter indefinitely. Featured in the cast are Burt Lancaster, Ben Gazzara, and Kate Nelligan. ~ Ryan Shriver, All Movie Guide

Stereotyped and predictable, this is a feeble romantic adventure story about Laura (Miou-Miou), her estranged husband Tournier (Robin Renucci), her erstwhile lover-to-be Tom (Alain Souchon), and the arms dealer they are out to foil (François Perrot). Laura and Tournier are in southern Morocco conspiring to put a lid on the arms deal that is about to go through with a hostile Arab nation, and then they meet Tom, the owner of a transport service and pilot of the "Sphinx," his biplane. Tom becomes an accomplice in their plot, and before long he and Laura are romantically involved -- though not convincingly. The tepid romance is matched by tepid action scenes and a predictable ending. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide